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God-Realisation

No mind, no form, I only exist;
Now ceased all will and thought.
The final end of Nature’s dance:
I am It whom I have sought.
A realm of Bliss bare, ultimate,
Beyond both knower and known,
A rest immense I enjoy at last;
I face the One alone.
I have crossed the secret ways of life;
I have become the Goal.
The Truth immutable is revealed:
I am the way, the God-Soul.
My spirit aware of all the heights,
I am mute in the core of the Sun.
I barter nothing with time and deeds;
My cosmic play is done.

God can be seen. He can be felt. He can be realised. When He is seen, He is Existence. When He is felt, He is Consciousness. When He is realised, He is Delight. In His embodiment of Existence, He is eternal. In His revelation of Consciousness, He is infinite. In His manifestation of Delight, He is immortal. His Vision Transcendental and His Reality Absolute are man’s future achievements. Man’s expanding love, crying devotion and glowing surrender are God’s future possessions.

The world tells you a frightening secret:
God is austere;
God is demanding;
God is stern.
I tell you an illumining secret:
God is reachable;
God is lovable;
God is enjoyable.
When your mind is calm, God is reachable.
When your heart is pure, God is lovable.
When your soul is sure, God is enjoyable.

For God-realisation, the first and foremost necessity is peace of mind. How can we have peace of mind? There are a few ways. If we decrease our earthly needs and increase our Heavenly needs, then we can get peace of mind. Also, if we do not expect anything from anyone or from anything except from God, then we can have peace of mind. As long as there is expectation, human expectation or earthly expectation, we cannot have peace of mind. Again, we cannot have peace of mind by positive or negative renunciation, but by affirmative acceptance. We have to accept the real Reality of God that is inside the world. Then, with our inner cry, with our aspiration, we have to create receptivity inside our body-consciousness so that we can welcome God the Supreme Beloved with His boundless Light and Delight.

In order for us to realise God, we also need purity, especially in our emotional vital. When we purify our emotional vital, we see and feel God’s Presence. Then we have to establish clarity in the mind. When we establish clarity in the mind, we will be able to see God very intimately. Then we have to commune with God all the time. In order to commune with God all the time, we have to create the supreme necessity for this inside our heart. This necessity has to be our psychic necessity. When we have created a psychic necessity to commune with God all the time, we shall without fail see God, talk to God, grow into the very image of God and consciously participate in God’s Cosmic Drama as devoted and unconditional instruments of God.

Wherever we are, God is. In order to realise this supreme truth, we have to return what we have borrowed from the world: darkness, ignorance, bondage, limitation, imperfection and death. We borrowed these things because we felt that they would help us considerably, but now we have come to realise that they are real obstructions. So these things we must return, and the things that we eternally have in the inmost recesses of our being—peace, light, bliss, truth—we have to increase. We have to bring them to the fore, for they are the real Reality of our existence. The things that we eternally are, we have to claim and offer to the world at large. If we do this, we shall know who God is and where God is.

The moment you know
Who you really are,
All secrets of the world
Will be an open book to you.

What exactly do you mean by God-realisation?

God-realisation means self-discovery in the highest sense of the term—the conscious realisation of your oneness with God. As long as you remain in ignorance, you will feel that God is somebody else, who has infinite Power, whereas you are the feeblest person on earth. But the moment you realise God, you come to know that you and God are absolutely one in both the inner and the outer life. God-realisation means your identification with your own absolutely highest Self.

You may have studied books on God and people may have told you that God is in everybody. But until you have realised God, this is all mental speculation. When you are God-realised, you consciously know what God is, what He looks like, what He wills. You remain in God’s Consciousness and speak to God face to face. You see God both in the finite and in the Infinite; you see God as both personal and impersonal.

This is not mental hallucination or imagination; it is all direct reality. When one speaks to a human being, there is always a veil of ignorance, darkness, imperfection and misunderstanding. But between God and the inner being of one who has realised Him, there can be no ignorance, no veil. You can speak to God more clearly, more intimately, more openly than to a human being.

Is it the soul that realises God?

The soul is a portion of God and it is eternally for God. It is our body, vital, mind and heart that have not realised God. The soul knows who God is and where God is and what God is; but the human being only gets glimpses. The human being must practise spirituality and inner discipline and realise the Highest.

When the human in us realises the Highest, at that time there is no difference between us and God. At that time the body, vital and mind become inseparably one and they embody, reveal and manifest the Highest. There is no difference between that illumined consciousness and the highest Reality itself.

It is the human in us that realises God, not the soul. The soul has to manifest God to the world at large; that is why the soul has come into the world.

There are only
Three special lessons
That you have to study
For your God-realisation:
Love God soulfully,
Devote yourself to God sleeplessly
And surrender to God’s Will
Willingly, cheerfully and breathlessly.

What is the difference between seeing God and realising God?

There is a great difference between seeing God and realising God. When we see God, we can see Him as an individual or as an object or as something else. But we may not consciously and continuously embody Him and feel that He is our very own. What we do not embody, we cannot reveal or manifest. But when we realise God, we become one with God’s Consciousness and God becomes part and parcel of our life.

If we see something, the vision may last for a short while; but when we realise something, this knowledge lasts forever. There is a great difference between experience and realisation. Experience is something that lasts for a few hours or a few days or years; it does not last forever. Experience enters into our life but it does not and cannot make its permanent abode within us. But once we have realisation, it becomes part and parcel of our life and lasts for Eternity.

How do you know that there is such a thing as realisation, and how do you know when you are realised?

Many people have realised God. This is not my theory; this is not my discovery. Indian sages, Indian spiritual Masters of the hoary past, have discovered the Truth; and I also see eye to eye with them on the strength of my own realisation.

When you eat a mango, you know that you have eaten it. You have eaten a mango and the knowledge of it remains inside you. If others say, “No, you have not eaten a mango,” it does not bother you, for you know what you have done. As long as your hunger is satisfied, you do not need the approval or recognition of others. The delicious taste, the experience that you had, is proof enough for you. In the spiritual world also, when one has drunk the Nectar of realisation, one knows that one has really realised God. One feels infinite Peace, infinite Light, infinite Bliss, infinite Power in his inner consciousness. A realised person can see, feel and know what Divinity is in his own inner consciousness. When one has realisation, he has a free access to God and a sense of complete fulfilment. When realisa-tion dawns in an aspirant’s life, then he will know it unmistakably.

How to know
When you have realised God?
The day you can look in the mirror
And use your inner will-power
To see not only your face
But countless other faces
In and around your face,
And know that these faces
Are all yours—
On that day you will know
That you have realised God.

Is it certain that every human being will be realised and earth will be illumined?

It is absolutely certain that everybody will become realised. Not only will every human being become realised, but also all the souls that are in the animal kingdom will eventually come into the human kingdom, and then they too will become realised. No creation of God will remain unrealised and unillumined. Earth will definitely be illumined; it is only a matter of time. God’s entire creation has to realise God. This is God’s Decree. Otherwise, God’s Game will not be complete.

God’s Heart-Door
Is always wide open
For you to come and go,
But if you are wise,
You will come only to stay.

What is the difference between a mystical experience and God-realisation?

God-realisation is infinitely higher than a mystical experience. In a mystical experience, you feel God’s Presence as something very sweet and delicate, but a mystical experience is not permanent. As soon as you achieve a mystical experience, you can lose it. But God-realisation is permanent. Once you realise God, you never lose what you have.

A mystic is much inferior to a yogi. There is no comparison. A mystic is satisfied with experiences alone. He wants to enter into wisdom-light, but he does not care for the world. The mystic wants only the experience which leads to a final merging in God. A yogi constantly and unconditionally serves the Supreme and at the same time is continuously having God-experiences.

Since God is within us and we know that one day we will realise God, why is it necessary to practise Yoga?

One day we shall realise everything which is natural. God is natural and so naturally we shall realise Him. But those who do not practise spiritual discipline will have to wait for Eternity to realise God. God has given us a conscious mind and conscious aspiration. If we do not want to use our conscious aspiration, then we can wait. God is not compelling us or forcing us. We can sleep if we want to. But if we consciously pray and meditate, then we will realise God sooner. Everybody will reach the Goal, but he who sleeps will not reach the Goal as fast as he who is running. One day everybody will realise God because in God’s Cosmic Vision, He will never allow anyone to remain unrealised. But it will take a very long time.

Why does God make it so difficult for those who aspire to realise Him?

God has not made it difficult for the sincere seekers. For the sincere seekers, the road is very short. Only for the doubtful seekers is the road very long. This moment you may feel that God is very kind to you, but the next moment you get a blow or some pain and then you lose faith. Some unconscious part of you may say, “O God, why are You so cruel to me? This morning I meditated so well. How is it that my body is now suffering?” At that time if you can say, “Although I am suffering such pain, perhaps something infinitely more serious was going to happen to me and God saved me. God is so kind to me,” if you can change your attitude towards God, immediately the road becomes easier.

The road is long only for those who do not feel gratitude to God. If something bad happens, immediately think, “Oh, it could have been infinitely worse. Because of His infinite Compassion, God has not allowed something worse to come.” If you have that kind of attitude, then the road becomes very, very easy.

God is ready to give you
Instant realisation.
Will you be able to receive it
With your constant aspiration?

In one of your books you said, “If you want to see God, you have to meditate twelve hours a day. If you want to come face to face with God, you have to meditate twenty-four hours a day.” Is that possible?

When you are on the verge of realisation, it is quite possible, because at that time you have acquired considerable capacity. Even while you are eating, while you are talking, while you are doing your job, you will be having your best meditation. At that time, you will be able to do many things at a time. After you make considerable progress in your inner life, you will see that your inner being is meditating twenty-four hours a day.

What do you think is the greatest obstacle in achieving God-realisation?

The greatest obstacle need not be the same for each individual. Somebody’s greatest obstacle will be doubt; somebody else may have fear as his greatest obstacle, and a third person may have insecurity. All these difficulties can be overcome by using only one weapon and that is love.

Let us take obstacles as imperfections. A child plays in the playground and gets covered with mud and dirt. Then he just runs to his mother, and she cleans him. It is the bounden duty of the mother to clean the child. If the child feels that because he is dirty his mother will scold him, insult him and strike him, then he will not go to her. But he does not feel that. First of all, he does not consider himself dirty. Then, when he runs to his mother, he is aware only of her love. He feels that his mother is his all. At every moment he has a free access to her.

If we have doubt, if we have fear, if we have other undivine qualities or imperfections, like a child let us run toward our eternal Father. He is there to purify us, to illumine us, to liberate us, to give us what He has. We have a free access to the eternal Father. But if we use our physical mind, we will feel, “Oh, God will be displeased with us. God will not accept us because we are so dirty, so imperfect, so impure.”

The physical mind immediately separates us. It makes us feel that we are all imperfection while God is perfect Perfection; so how can we go to Him? But if we feel that God is our very own, that God is all Love for us and we are all Love for Him, then we just go and place ourselves at His Feet. At that time, there is no obstacle.

My first impression of God:
He is infinitely more indulgent
Than I thought.

We have to feel that what God is, we also are. That very thing we are right now, but we are not aware of it. We have to feel that God has created us and He wants us to grow into His very image. We have a mind which separates us; but we also have a heart. When the heart comes to the fore, immediately we feel tremendous joy, relief and satisfaction. We feel that God is ours. When we use our heart, we claim God as our very own on the strength of our oneness. When we use the heart, there is no obstacle which cannot be surmounted. As a child has established his oneness with the mother, even so we can establish our oneness with God on the strength of our spontaneous love for Him.

God-realisation means God-discovery,
And God-discovery is nothing other than
The reclaiming of one’s own
Ancient God-roots.

When someone reaches God-realisation, what happens to his soul?

The realised soul remains with the body. If the soul remains in the body when a person is realised, then he can consciously work for the divinity in humanity. He will feel at that time that he is a conscious instrument of God, that God is the Doer and God is the Action and that God is utilising him. When the veil of ignorance is removed, the soul gets the greatest opportunity to fulfil God’s Mission on earth.

Is it necessary to come into contact with an enlightened person in order to realise God?

It is not necessary or obligatory to have a living Master. But if we have a living Master, it may help us considerably. The first person who realised God did it without the help of any human being. God Himself gave him God-realisation. But if we have a living Master, then we have more confidence in ourselves. We are more convinced.

As we need teachers for our outer knowledge, so also we need a spiritual Master to help and guide us in our inner life, especially in the beginning. Otherwise, our progress will be very slow and uncertain. The Master will encourage and inspire the seeker and give him the proper explanations of his experiences. Again, if the seeker is doing something wrong in his meditation, the Master will be in a position to correct him.

Why does one go to the university when one can study at home? It is because he feels that he will get expert instruction from people who know the subject well. There are exceptions, of course. There have been a few—very, very few—men of knowledge who did not go to any university. God is in everybody, and if a seeker feels that he does not need human help, he is most welcome to try his capacity alone. But if someone is wise and wants to run towards his Goal, instead of stumbling or merely walking, then certainly the help of a Guru can be considerable.

Let us say that I am in London. I know that New York exists and that I have to go back there. What do I need to get me there? An airplane and a pilot. In spite of the fact that I know that New York exists, I cannot get there alone. Similarly, you know that God exists. You want to reach God, but someone has to take you there. As the airplane takes me to New York, someone has to carry you to the Consciousness of God which is deep within you. Someone has to show you how to enter into your own divinity, which is God.

For millennia we have been swimming in the sea of ignorance. When we become awakened, we want to swim across the sea into the ocean of Light and Delight. If we know that there is a boatman with a boat which can safely carry us to our goal, then naturally we will try to get help from him. A genuine spiritual Master knows the way and is bound to help us reach the goal. Like a boatman, he will carry us to the other shore.

In human life, if people see that someone has taken help, they may say, “Oh, he could not do it alone.” But a person who is really hungry for God will say, “No matter who offers the food, I am hungry and I want to eat immediately. This is the food that I have been crying for all my life and he is supplying me with it. As long as he is feeding true Divinity to me, let me eat.”